A Christmas Nightmare

On December 1st, Trion Worlds apologized for the extended downtime and promised to offer players compensation packages. Displaying a surprisingly old-fashioned lack of transparency, the publisher did not explain what caused the “latency issues” that precipitated the initial server restarts. According to Trion representatives, the issues were not caused by a DDOS attack. This leaves us ArcheAge fans to speculate at the true nature and course of events last weekend.

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What kind of event could throttle servers both in Europe and North America simultaneously? What kind of issues could prevent Trion from simply restarting their machines or reverting to backup? Was the problem caused by software or hardware? Opinion varied wildly on social media over the weekend.

ArcheAge fans on Reddit and /vg/ leaned into cataclysmic hearsay (maybe the datacenter’s AC shut down and slagged the server). Some folks on the official forums speculated that the downtime had an insidious origin. My best guess is that whatever caused the ArcheAge downtime is either mundane or embarrassing, thus Trion Worlds is attempting to save face by avoiding open discussion of it.

Chrismahanukwanzakah Comes Early

Trion Worlds did eventually deliver on its promise to compensate ArcheAge players for the downtime, but limited the full compensation package to only current or expired Patron subscribers.

5 Bonus Days of Patron Time

15 Superior Worker’s Compensation Potions (500 LP each)

30 Loyalty Tokens to use at the Loyalty Store on the rewards of your choice

3 Greedy Goblin Gummies (+10% Loot Drop Rate)

3 Frankenflavor Jawbreakers (+10% XP)

3 Marshmallow Sugar Pumpkins (+3% Move Speed)

Normal players who have never paid for a Patron subscription receive a slightly less impressive package:

10 Superior Worker’s Compensation Potions (500 LP each)

15 Loyalty Tokens to use at the Loyalty Store on the rewards of your choice

3 Greedy Goblin Gummies (+10% Loot Drop Rate)

3 Frankenflavor Jawbreakers (+10% XP)

3 Marshmallow Sugar Pumpkins (+3% Move Speed)

Where’s Our Holiday Event?

We’re well into the month of December and Trion has yet to announce the start date and content of their Christmas-ish event. Intrepid data miners on Reddit have delved into ArcheAge database websites and dug up the items and quests that might be eventually enabled for public consumption.

Hopefully the ArcheAge team at Trion remembers “it’s better to give than receive” and declines the opportunity to “balance” the reward chests from the event quest. Just translate Korea’s holiday content, put a bow on it and place it under the tree. The sooner the better.

Note: If you’re wondering where the images in this article originated, I retrieved them from the official ArcheAge Korean forums. I sincerely hope Trion Worlds opts to enable the snow effects for at least a little while in our version of the game. Aside from jungle foliage, CryENGINE 3 excels at frozen environments and associated ice and snow effects (if you haven’t played Crysis, you should; it’s really cooool).